Kenya Dig It?

Northwood's Kenya Team (L to R):

Kathy, Mark, Cyndi, Sarah, Grant, Andy

Nairobi, Kenya and the Twin Cities are strongly linked by the “Refugee Highway” and International Teams . How can we develop and nurture this link for serving refugees? Our desire and prayer is that this trip to visit refugees and the IT Refugee Ministry team in Kenya would be a step toward answering that question.

We hope to serve the Nairobi team by helping with the teaching and children’s program of their annual retreat for refugee believers. We will assist in refugee Bible studies throughout Nairobi where many refugees live as they await the next step in their journey. We will engage refugees in conversation to learn of their needs, hopes and dreams. We will serve the Nairobi Refugee Ministry team and learn from them. We will explore resource needs of refugees and the Nairobi team and how God may want us to play a role in meeting those needs. And we will explore the possibility of an on-going partnership between the Kenya Refugee team and Northwood Church. Two days are set aside for a ministry tour of an orphanage and the Kibera slums as well as meeting with other ministries in the Nairobi area.

Refugees from all over the world are literally on our doorstep, and they are here for a reason. Acts 17:26-27 says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

Here in the Twin Cities we experience refugees at the end of their long journey. Serving refugees who are still on their journey in another part of the world can empower us to reach out even more effectively to those we come into contact with here. The team’s experience in Kenya will help shape the Twin Cities Summer Team outreach as well as help guide Northwood’s on-going outreach to the Twin Cities refugee community.

This will be our inaugural short-term mission team to the African continent. Please pray for safety, good health and that God’s Spirit would powerfully impact the hearts of all involved – refugees, team members and their families, missionaries and nationals.